Eberhard Lippert-Adelberger
Warum aus Mücken Flöhe wurden - Hintergründiges zum Anfang von Goethes XV. Römischer Elegie
As is well-known, Goethe blended a quotation from the classical Historia Augusta into the beginning of the fifteenth Roman Elegy, changing it, however, significantly. The shift from the Latin “mosquitoes” (culices) to “fleas” is especially striking. Contrary to assumptions, this change of insect species appears to be motivated by sexual symbolism. Following the interpretatio obscena that the humanist scholar Adrianus Turnebus made of culices, the shift is possibly related to Goethe's problems concerning homosexuality.
Arcadia International Journal for Literary Studies, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 0003-7982
Volume: 41, 07/2006
Pages: 112 - 123
Show full article (external site)
Show all available items of this journal
Search
